CHAPTER 9 #3
“You’ll need another dose within a week. The drug won’t stop him completely, but it will slow him down, and the side effects will sicken you both. If the contact goes on for too long, he’ll probably stop.”
Dani exhaled. But after a minute, she swallowed the vial back. “One week, then.”
Sera held her eyes. “The king won’t hesitate to make you or your sisters disappear if it suits his purposes. Right now, you are useful to him. One day you won’t be.”
Alexander was just knotting his tie for dinner when a knock sounded at the door to his apartment. Sighing, he stalked out through the living room to the front hall. He’d already instructed Henri’s temporary replacement that he wasn’t to be disturbed unless it was Daniela or one of his siblings.
But when he opened the door, Lara Cavalieri strode inside without bothering to wait for an invitation. She wore a black evening gown that looked like it was strangling her, and heels that were so high he was surprised she hadn’t twisted an ankle.
He glared thunderously at the guard, watching the man shrivel in place.
“I just thought,” the guard stammered. “Since you said that…”
“We will discuss this later,” Alex said coldly. “If you’re still employed here, that is.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Alexander shut the door, counted to ten, and made a bored show of checking his cufflinks. “What do you want, Lara?”
“Oh, come now, was that really necessary?” Lara leaned back against the edge of his sofa, allowing her skirt to fall open so he could see her legs. When he refused to look, she pouted and followed him over to the mirror in the hall. “Your tie is crooked. Here, let me—”
She reached for it. When he neatly sidestepped her, brushing her hands away, her eyes flashed dark with anger.
“I think you should go.”
“This doesn’t have to be difficult, Alex. We both know how this will end. Why fight it?” Her lips twisted up into a coy smirk as she trailed fingers down his arm. “Unless you secretly like playing hard to get?”
“I think it’s time you left my room.”
He would have to get the staff to air it out. Everything now reeked of her noxious perfume.
“Have your little fling with the sanguine now if that’s what it takes to get her out of your head.
” Lara’s voice took on a steely edge. “But once I become your wife, you will never see her again. If I have to banish her family from the sector to make sure you don’t go crawling to her bed every night, I will. ”
“Is that a threat?” He loomed over her.
“I just want to make sure we understand each other.” Lara smirked up at him. He’d never struck a woman, but gods, how he wanted to slap her spoiled face.
“Then let us be very clear. Even if our fathers do somehow force us into a sham marriage, we will never share a bedroom, much less a bed. I will never lay a finger on you in affection, never touch you outside of formal state events, never kiss you. You can fuck every bodyguard, stable hand and personal trainer in the palace, and I won’t care.
You are nothing to me. Your children will not be heir to this dynasty because they will not be of my blood.
So, think very carefully whether you want to throw your life away on an empty, loveless arrangement. ”
Her blue eyes sharpened. “No, I don’t think so.” Retrieving her clutch from the couch, she pulled out a small vial. “This is insulin. I understand it’s been rather hard to obtain recently.”
He ground his teeth. “What are you playing at, Lara?”
“In an hour, you’re going to turn on the news and see an announcement that during the rioting yesterday, rebel saboteurs broke into several of our pharmaceutical plants and set off explosives, contaminating critical equipment.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to get replacement parts for months at the earliest. Independent analysis will confirm this. ”
“I’ve read the reports.” Alex shook his head. “There weren’t rioters anywhere near your factories.”
“Maybe you don’t have all the intel we do.
” She shrugged. “In any case, our production capabilities have now been crippled.” She shook her head, tone so falsely sorrowful that Alex felt his hands begin to shake.
“We’re going to have to go offline for months.
Who knows how long it will be before we can get our manufacturing up to its previous levels. ”
“You bitch. You’re going to kill tens of thousands of people before the month is out, hundreds of thousands in a year’s time when they run out of medications they need for chronic conditions.”
“No, Alex. You are. Like I said, this doesn’t have to be difficult.
I want the crown, and you will give me an heir.
” Her phone chimed. “Oh look, that will be the video of the explosions taking out the plant going live as we speak. It’s amazing what you can create nowadays with digital technology.
” She smiled, turning his face to hers. “I’m going to take every last thing you care about.
And I will make you beg for daring to talk to me the way you just did.
But for tonight, your blood will be enough. ”
Alex: I need to talk to you. May I come to your room?
Dani: Are you okay?
Alex: Something happened. It’s better that I explain in person.
Dani was pacing before the fireplace in her suite when he resolidified before her a few seconds later. She gasped at the sight of him.
“You look terrible.”
“I don’t feel well,” he admitted. Pulling the vial of insulin from his coat pocket, he placed it on a side table. Dani’s eyes widened hopefully at the sight of it, but just as quickly, she frowned.
“Sit down.” She guided him over to the sofa and took his hand in hers, bringing it to her lips. “Do you need to feed from me?”
“No.” He was forced to look away, ashamed when his eyes began to smart. He had to keep it together. “Sorry. I’m not explaining myself well, am I?”
“I’ve been worried about you. I started feeling sick about half an hour ago.
I thought it was a reaction to the drug Serafina had me take.
” She traced the backs of his knuckles. That tiny measure of comfort made something come loose in his chest. “Now I wonder if part of me knew something was wrong, if through our connection, I somehow sensed that you were in trouble.”
There was no easy way to tell her what came next. He pushed the collar of his shirt aside, revealing two fresh puncture wounds. “Lara came to my room.”
Daniela went very still. “She… fed from you.”
“I didn’t have a choice in the matter.”
Briefly, he recounted Lara pushing her way into his room, her threats against Dani and her family, and the fake video footage that was being released at that very moment of Cavalieri Pharmaceuticals being bombed during the riots.
“They’re going to cut all drug manufacturing unless I comply with their demands.
Months, at a minimum. Tonight, I was required to give her my vein.
Next time, she’ll want more. Lara and her father won’t stop until she’s queen with an heir or two to cement her position.
And how can I say no, with so many innocent lives hanging in the balance?
It’s why every attempt to take down my father thus far has failed, why I’ve been forced to comply with his demands, at least in public.
He has the ability to hurt too many people I care about. ”
“I am the daughter of two resistance fighters.” Dani placed a hand over his heart.
“I believe hope is never truly lost, even when sometimes the days in front of us seem very bleak. We will find a way through this. But first, I need to know that you’re okay.
She forced you to let her feed from you without your consent. Is that all that happened?”
“She made me take from her throat, too.” He expelled a ragged breath, reaching down to lace their fingers.
“I think she was expecting, hoping, that the act would be arousing for me. For male vampires, it usually is. I’d rebuffed her advances before.
She started to move her hand down my stomach, and I didn’t stop her.
I wanted to see her disappointment, her outrage when she realized I wasn’t the least bit turned on, that she disgusted me inside and out. ”
“I’m so sorry, Alexander.” Dani wrapped her arms around him, drawing his head down to rest in the crook of her neck. “You can’t marry her. Even if you can’t marry me, I cannot stand the thought of you being tormented by her for the rest of your life.”
He shuddered, breathing in the clean scent of her skin.
“Now I’m starting to believe her plan all along in bringing you here was to cause enough trouble that you would tire of having your heart broken and leave me for once and for all.
I suspect she and my father hoped I would be so devastated I would give up all protests and agree to marry her in a fit of despondency. ”
“Don’t even think of doing such a thing.” She poked him in the chest. “I am not nearly so fragile, and for the record, I prefer my princes far less broody.”
He bent to kiss her softly. “That gown looks absolutely ravishing on you. Please tell me we have five minutes to spare before we’re needed downstairs.”
“I suspect no one would miss us too terribly if we were delayed.”
His hands skimmed up the edges of her bodice. There was no missing the way her eyes darkened when they reached the full swell of her breasts, made all the more round by the corset he could see she had on under her gown. Gods, how he loved corsets.
“I confess… I’m having a rather hard time being a gentleman right at the moment.” His mouth hovered a breath from hers.
“Then don’t.” Dani leaned in, nipping lightly at his bottom lip.
She slid a knee across his lap, the voluminous folds of her dark purple dress spilling out on either side of him on the couch. As his hands found her hips, pulling her flush to him so she could feel his want, he relished in seeing the soft little “O” that formed at her lips.
She was perfect. Exquisite. And he was going to have her just like this.